The present invention relates to a data storage method for storing user data and associated information on tape. The invention relates particularly, but not exclusively, to storing compressed user data and associated information on tape.
It is known to write user data records to tape in fixed size groups independently of the record structure of the data words and to put information regarding the contents of each group in an index associated with each group. For example, the index may contain information regarding the length of each record or partial record in the group. However, storage according to these methods requires extensive and time consuming overhead for maintaining the group indices.